MOVIE REVIEW: Scares are sparse in 'IT'

Stephen King's horror-thriller “IT” with its premise of a demon clown terrorizing children, is lame and disappointing.

By Dana Barbuto/The Patriot Ledger

With its premise of a demon clown terrorizing children, Stephen King’s horror-thriller “IT” was such a cultural juggernaut that those of us who grew up in the ’80s had an aversion to clowns and wouldn’t walk over sewers grates. I expected the new movie version to tap into all that anxiety. It didn’t. It’s lame and disappointing.

I expected spine-tingling chills, given the pedigree of the behind-the-scenes team involved in its making. King is the master of the horror genre and director Andy Muschietti helmed the acclaimed supernatural flick, “Mama.” What could go wrong? A lot, it seems.

The events in the film cover just one-half of King’s 1,138-page book that came out in 1986. It took a trio of screenwriters to get the job done – Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman. That’s never a good sign. Too many cooks. Contrast that with the twice as long 1990 miniseries that required but two, Tommy Lee Wallace and Lawrence Cohen.

Like that terrific gem, the gist of the story is this: When children begin to disappear in the town of Derry, Maine, a group of kids must face their fears and square off against the evil Pennywise, whose history of murder and violence dates centuries.

The tone is ominous from the get-go. King appears in a clip to tell the audience to “enjoy the movie ... if you can.” Then the opening sequence involving the ill-fated little Georgie sets the stage for what you hope is a thrill ride. Rain splatters, Mom plays the kind of soft piano music that’s heard in horror movies, an old lady and a cat look on nervously as Georgie (he’s as cute as his name) chases a paper boat down a waterlogged street, wearing a bright yellow slicker to juxtapose the gray day. The boat gets stuck in a sewer grate. Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) bends over to retrieve it. Startling eyes stare back. It’s Pennywise. Run Georgie, run, you want to yell. Then after he’s sucked into the drain by the clown, Georgie’s blood turns the water-filled street into an eerie pool of red. Everything else is downhill from there, straight out of Horror Movies 101.

Fast-forward eight months and it’s June 1989. (The movie moves the action from the 1950s to the 1980s with the next movie set 27 years later.) School is just out for the summer. The main characters, aka the “Losers” club are the targets of bullies. They include: Georgie’s older brother, Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), who is obsessive about the day his sibling went missing; Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor) the chubby loner; Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) the germaphobe and hypochondriac; and Richie (Finn Wolfhard) the comedian of the group.

At its core, “IT” is a coming-of-age story, a darker and inferior version of “Stand By Me,” filled with nostalgia, heartache and growing pains. The filmmakers ponder themes of bullying, friendship and facing your fears. When the kids are on screen acting, well, like kids – arguing about loogies, jumping off cliffs, – the movie soars. You want more of them. But the horror schlock prevails. What makes it watchable, and even enjoyable, is the cast of terrific young actors who feel like real kids. In total, there are six of them, five boys and one girl (Sophia Lillis), and that’s a lot of characters to develop in one movie. Not to mention a trio of high school bullies, who are more terrifying than the clown. Simply put, it’s too much. A few characters are so cookie cutter that when they go missing or are in peril you don’t care. The movie is also weighed down by expository sequences that relay the town’s troubling history. It is all rather rote.

When all else fails, the director relies on Pennywise (played with glee by Bill Skarsgård) to jump out of a closet, box or appear in a window or mirror, eventually reaching the point of diminishing returns. It’s tedious. The red balloon, Pennywise’s calling card, floats nearby. The script separates the child from the pack and puts him alone in a house, bathroom, library, sewer. Tension slowly builds. The music grows more furious. Then tadah! It’s Pennywise and his mouth full of piranha teeth.

The scariest part of “IT” isn’t the killer clown, it’s the bullies and the parents – an overprotective mother and a pair of abusive fathers. But again, given the film’s dense source material, these subplots are never fully explored. Muschietti can’t seem to make up his mind what direction he wants to go in – the human drama or the supernatural horror. The trailers lead you to believe that “IT” is terrifying. But it isn’t. “It’s” bark is worse than its bite.